


Breathe Again

by TurtleTotem



Series: Tumblr Ficlets [11]
Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, CPR, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-02
Updated: 2017-03-02
Packaged: 2018-09-27 19:53:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10043549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TurtleTotem/pseuds/TurtleTotem
Summary: In a back room at the Paris Peace Accords in 1973, Charles gets tasered instead of Raven, and it changes everything. (On Tumblrhere.)





	

Tasers weren’t supposed to be lethal weapons, that was the _point_ of them _._ But Erik didn’t imagine they’d been tested on mutants – or maybe it was just bad luck, some fluke or unsuspected heart condition. It didn’t matter. What mattered was that Charles wasn’t breathing.

Erik had had all sorts of grim-but-necessary plans when they walked into this room. The greater good. The future of the mutant race. None of it mattered. What mattered was that Charles wasn’t breathing.

Raven, at whom the taser had been aimed before Charles stepped in front of her, was screaming something but Erik couldn’t seem to hear past the peculiar roar in his ears.

“Get her out of here,” Erik snapped at Hank, “you know how important it is that she not be here.” He turned to Logan, but the alleged man from the future had collapsed; there was no time to deal with that.

Hank gathered a thrashing, protesting Raven into his arms and leaped from the window. Erik eliminated all other threats in the room with a quick sweep of his powers, taking care to leave Trask alive because the present was disastrous enough, they didn’t need the future to be as well. Then finally he could turn all his focus to Charles.

Whatever the dime romance paperbacks might say, giving CPR was nothing at all like kissing. Erik would know – would give anything at all to have that familiar mouth pushing back against his, feel Charles’s breath on his lips. Instead, for long, long minutes, there was only slack, empty, motionless nothing.

Erik thought his own heart would stop when Charles finally moved, coughed, gasped – pulled away from Erik, seeking air.

“What happened? Where’s Raven?” Charles asked, looking around wildly.

“Safe,” Erik said, hoping he was right, hoping he could let her stay that way.

“We need to clear out,” Logan growled from behind them, where Erik belatedly realized he was holding off the armed men who were trying to get into the room.

“What _happened?”_ Charles demanded again, lunging unsteadily to his feet and clutching at Erik for balance.

"You stopped breathing.” The words fell harsh from his mouth, carrying traces of the horror and panic still echoing inside him. Charles stared at him.

“Out the window,” Logan snapped, “let’s _go.”_

Erik pulled Charles to the window and out, wrapping his power around both of them to turn the fall into a smooth glide. Charles gasped and pressed close to him, reflexively; Erik pulled him closer still.

Just before their feet touched the ground, Erik pressed their mouths together again – couldn’t not, had to erase the sense-memory of lifeless unresponsive lips against his.

Caught off guard, Charles arched hungrily into the kiss for one second, two – then there were other things happening, bullets flying and humans shouting, Logan landing lightly beside them and lashing out with bony claws. Erik turned his attention to the matters at hand, but to some deep and bright-pulsing part inside him, none of it mattered. What mattered was that Charles was breathing again.


End file.
